Spiritual, dignified, magical and intoxicating.
The reviewers poured praise over rock icon Bruce Springsteen's thirty-seventh concert in Sweden.
It's almost 50 years since Bruce Springsteen's first concert in Sweden. And the star can still impress the audience – and the reviewers – who saw his three-hour-long concert at the Strawberry arena in Stockholm on Monday evening.
The 74-year-old may not slide on his knees along the edge of the stage anymore, but he can still captivate an audience, according to Aftonbladet's Håkan Steen.
"It still feels like he strives upwards and forwards more than countless significantly younger colleagues. The evening's performance belongs to the more loaded ones I've experienced with this artist in the capital," were some of the praises from Steen, who gave the concert four plus.
"Rare sharpness"
Even Expressen's Anders Dahlbom gave the concert four wasps in rating. He calls the entire last hour "an emotional override" and writes that the concert was permeated by hope.
"Even if the first evening in Stockholm never reaches the last classic evening in Gothenburg last year, the strength of Bruce Springsteen and the love from all old friends at old Friends in the capital gives hope," writes Dahlbom.
Göteborgsposten's Johan Lindqvist gave the entire five fours for "The Boss" concert and called it a prayer for the USA. Best were "Land of hope and dreams", "Reason to believe", "Backstreets", and "Bobby Jean".
"Springsteen is at his best when he takes on a clear task, when he has something specific to address. It's obvious that both he and the band perform this concert with rare sharpness and an even for them extraordinary energy," writes Lindqvist.
Spirituality
Dagens Nyheter's Mattias Dahlström saw the spiritual presence hovering over the concert and means that Springsteen finds new strength in gospel.
He also gives the concert a four in rating.
"When he then sings about being the "Last man standing" and lets almost fifty-year-old "Backstreets" with its youthful friendship promises to live forever, or when he in the concluding "I'll see you in my dreams" repeatedly repeats "death is not the end", he is, unlike in the concluding and audience-pleasing hit parade, engaged in a new and different way," writes Dahlström.
